FASNY Robotics Shines at FIRST World Championships!

Teams design, build, and program a robot, then collaborate with alliance partners to compete in a themed challenge featuring both autonomous and driver-controlled periods.

At the World Championships, qualified teams were divided into four divisions of 64 teams each. Over three days of gameplay, teams competed in rotating alliances to earn ranking points and advance to the final playoffs. The SharkBots won 9 out of 10 matches, propelling them to the semi-finals. On the fourth day, they advanced to the division finals with their alliance partners—the Tech Tigers from Massachusetts and Team PID from Kazakhstan—ultimately finishing 2nd in their division against two strong Romanian teams, in front of 50,000 spectators. This marked the first time a team from our region has reached that level of competition.

But this event isn’t just about robots. It emphasizes teamwork, mentorship, the engineering process, community outreach, and the promotion of STEM. These aspects are evaluated through presentations to judges during the competition.

The biggest honor came when the judges announced that the SharkBots had won the Second Place Inspire Award—the highest-ranked recognition given to teams who serve as a true inspiration to others through their sustained excellence and impact within the FIRST community, their local community, and beyond.

This is the first time a New York State team has advanced this far at Worlds, and also the first time one has been honored with the Inspire Award. FASNY is incredibly proud of Denis and Justin’s accomplishments. Their consistent high-level performance throughout the season earned them a 14th place global ranking, and they have now been invited to compete in one final international event—the Maryland Tech Invitational at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory this June, featuring the 40 best robots in the world.

Bravo, SharkBots! 🦈🤖